Utilitarianism, Selfishness, Exchange Value

A prominent criticism of Capitalism is entailed in Mill's variation of Bentham's Utilitarianism. For Bentham, as it is for Smith, the only significant consequences of an action are those to the agent, whereas, for Mill, the agent has no privileged status with respect to others in the evaluation of an action. In other words, Mill rejects the Selfishness principle of Smith's and Bentham's systems. However, from a Marxist perspective, a problem with his own doctrine that Mill himself acknowledges--that is has no ground for distinguishing 'higher' from 'lower' pleasure--is indicative of vestigial Capitalism. For, on that analysis, the difficulty stems from the homogenization of all the objects of desires, whether of vital need or of frivolous wish, effected by the quantification of them, which is essentially an assignment of an Exchange Value to them, and, hence, is subject to the vicissitudes of Supply and Demand So, despite the criticism of Selfishness, Mill's calculus remains committed to at least some market principles.